How Employment Discrimination Lawyer Can Help Pregnant Women Who Get Their Hours Cut at Work

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Pregnancy should be a beautiful experience that changes a woman's life for the better. However, a woman may run into issues with their employer if their hours get cut and the woman believes that her pregnancy was the primary cause. This situation can be a challenge and often requires an employment discrimination lawyer.

Cutting a Pregnant Woman's Hours May Be Employment Discrimination

When a woman gets pregnant, she usually gets some type of maternity leave from her place of employment that makes it easier for her to stay financially strong and solvent while she takes care of her baby and recovers from her delivery. However, some employers may cut her hours or even try to fire her before her maternity leave as a way of avoiding paying her anything. This situation is a clear case of employment discrimination.

The tough thing about this type of case is that it can be hard to prove that an employer cut a pregnant woman's hours or let her go – even temporarily – due to her pregnancy. That doesn't mean it is impossible. By gathering evidence, the pregnant woman and her lawyer can build a case that proves she lost hours due to her pregnancy and for no other reason beyond that.

Proving This Type of Case

The challenging thing about employment discrimination cases is proving that there was a pretext for cutting a person's hours that was not true. For example, an employer may try to claim that the pregnant woman asked for fewer hours verbally or that she agreed to it with another person beyond written agreements. Or they may claim that the woman's work habits were slipping or that she had been disciplined.

These types of arguments are often tough to prove or disprove because the person being discriminated against needs to show evidence that they lost hours due to pregnancy. There are a few ways to prove this point. First of all, they could have testimony from co-workers claiming that they overheard a manager talking about cutting hours due to pregnancy. Or there could be taped testimony between co-workers showcasing pregnancy discrimination.

These types of details can make it easier to prove that pregnancy discrimination was an issue in cutting a woman's hours. Try to work with a lawyer to find any written communication detailing discrimination, such as derogatory words against the pregnant woman, that can show the possibility of pretext and other related issues.


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